Warne-Muralidaran Trophy
and | administrator = Cricket Australia and Sri Lanka Cricket | format = Test cricket | tournament_format = Test Series | first_tournament = 2007–08 | next= | last_tournament = 2012–13 | participants = 2 | trophyholder = | current_champion = | most_successful = (3 titles) | most_runs = Michael Hussey (994) | most_wickets = Rangana Herath (28) | website = | current = Sri Lankan cricket team in Australia in 2012–13 }} The Warne–Muralidaran Trophy is awarded to the winner of the Australia–Sri Lanka Test cricket series from 2007–08 season onwards. The trophy is named after the two leading wicket takers in Test cricket, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (who prefers to romanise his name as "Muralidaran") and Australia's Shane Warne. The trophy celebrates the 25th anniversary of Australia–Sri Lanka Test cricket. The trophy features casts of the two bowlers' right hands and match-used cricket balls bowled by them during their careers. Sri Lanka Cricket, the governing body of cricket in Sri Lanka had written to its Australian counterpart, Cricket Australia, that the winner of the series should be awarded a trophy named after the two bowlers. Cricket Australia had responded positively to the Sri Lankans' proposal. In unveiling the trophy, Cricket Australia said in a statement, The Warne–Muralidaran trophy became the latest addition to the series of trophies named after former players such as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, for Test series between Australia and India and the Chappell–Hadlee Trophy which is contested between Australia and New Zealand in ODI format. History Background Before the Warne–Muralidaran Trophy, (1983–2004), Australia and Sri Lanka had played each other 18 times in the 21 year period, there had been four tours each in each country. Out of the 18 tests Australia had won 11 times while Sri Lanka had won only once, in 1999, and 6 Tests had been drawn. The following were all regular, not Warne-Muralidaran Tests between the two countries: * Australian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 1982–83 (1 Test) * Sri Lankan cricket team in Australia in 1987–88 (1 Test) * Sri Lankan cricket team in Australia in 1989–90 (2 Test) * Australian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 1992 (3 Test) * Sri Lankan cricket team in Australia in 1995–96 (3 Test) * Australian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 1999 (3 Test) * Australian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2003–04 (3 Test) * Sri Lankan cricket team in Australia in 2004 (2 Test) Inaugural series Shane Warne retired from cricket in 2007 with 708 wickets against his name and Muttiah Muralitharan played the 2007–2008 series eight wickets short of Warne's tally at the start of the series. Ricky Ponting stated that he was determined to deny Murali from getting the nine wickets required to surpass Warne as the highest wicket taker in Test cricket while in Australia. At the end of the series Muralitharan had bagged only four wickets. Australia won the test series and the trophy 2–0. In the second Test, Kumar Sangakkara was given out when the ball actually hit his shoulder on 192 by umpire Rudi Koertzen. After the match Koertzen apologized to Sangakkara. During the series Marvan Atapattu, former Sri Lankan cricket captain criticised the selecting board of Sri Lanka Cricket saying the selectors were a group of "Muppets headed by a joker" referring to chairman of selectors, Ashantha de Mel. Atapattu retired from cricket at the end of the series. 2011 series On the second day of the first Test, Nathan Lyon took his first wicket in tests with his first ball, his victim was Kumar Sangakkara; he is the 14th international player and 2nd Australian to do so. He finished with figures of 5/34, becoming the 131st player to take five wickets on debut in a Test match. Also, Trent Copeland took his first wicket in tests with his second ball; his victim was Tillakaratne Dilshan. Also in the first test the ICC admitted that the hawk-eye or eagle-eye made an error. On the first day of the third Test Shaminda Eranga got his first wicket in Tests with his first ball (repeating Nathan Lyon's feat in the first Test); his victim was Shane Watson. Also on the first day Shaun Marsh achieved an average of 209, the highest ever by an Australian. Michael Hussey was Man of the Match for all three test matches and was also awarded Man of the Series. 2012–13 series List of Warne–Muralidaran Trophy series Timeline Category:Test cricket competitions